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| Dear Yahoo!: |
| Why are "2-by-4" wood studs really 1.5 by 3.5 inches? |
John
Newbury Park, California |
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| Dear John: |
A keyword search in Yahoo! on "what size 2x4" resulted in a raw list of web pages that looked promising. One listing took us to a glossary at the Hardwood Handbook, where we found the following entry: Dressed Size - The dimensions of lumber after being surfaced with a planing machine. The dressed size is usually 1/2 to 3/4 inch less than the nominal or rough size. A 2x4-inch stud, for example, actually measures about 1 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. You can infer from this glossary listing that while people buy "dressed" wood (i.e., wood that has been planed down), the measurement of the wood is still given in terms of its "rough" size. A good
start, but we hoped to find something that actually said this (or, at least, said something close). We returned to the search results and scanned the possibilities. One link took us to a page on Lumber Sizing provided by the Advantage Lumber company. A brief description of "Dimensional Lumber" offered an explanation: The true measurement of a 2x4 is actually about 1.5x3.5. When the board is first rough sawn from the log, it is a true 2x4, but the drying process and planing of the board reduce it to the finished 1.5x3.5 size. The lumber is then sold as a "2x4" because the cost of the drying and machining are figured in ... it is also much easier to refer to a board as a "2x4", rather than a "1.5x3.5". We
came across other, similar explanations of the size discrepancy in the search results -- enough references, in fact, to make us feel certain that this is the answer. We hope you agree; it's the one we're sticking with.
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